
In a new study, researchers found a variety of as yet unexplored ways to attack the COVID-19 virus, even as it mutates.
They identified drugs and possible cocktails that are shown to target vital proteins of the coronavirus.
They proposed a list of drugs and cocktails that deserve testing for the treatment of COVID-19.
The research was conducted by a team at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and elsewhere.
In the study, the team did a virtual screening of the DrugBank database.
They tested their own screening protocol, as an alternative to software typically used in the biopharmaceutical industry to screen vast volumes of compounds in drug databases.
Theirs involved a double-scoring approach to identify lead compounds that show potential for COVID-19 therapy.
The procedure appears to have succeeded in avoiding false-positives—a common problem in virtual screening.
They found drugs that target—or bind to—multiple proteins that are essential for replication of the virus, and which are also involved in the initial stage of host-cell infection.
The team says the virus is mutating rapidly, which means that it is modifying its proteins.
If scientists have a drug that can target several proteins, and if one becomes mutated, the drug will be effective on others.
This attribute allowed the team to propose cocktails that have versatility.
For example, the study found one cocktail, baloxavir marboxil, natamycin and RU85053, which targets the three viral proteins respectively.
Such drug cocktails have proven effective in the treatment of other virally-transmitted diseases, such as HIV.
The team says that the reliability of their approach was validated by the fact that the screening also identified drugs that are already in a clinical trial.
Furthermore, such studies can provide valuable insights regarding why certain drugs were found to be ineffective.
For example, they state that the drug hydroxychloroquine was non-effective mainly due to its poor binding affinity towards viral proteins.
Other drugs that the study recommended for testing were tivantinib, olaparib, zoliflodacin, golvatinib, sonidegib, regorafenib and PCO-371.
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Copyright © 2020 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.